In recent years, the number of cerebral strokes which occurred each year exceeds 110,000, and it is estimated that the number of those who suffer from the cerebral stroke is 1,760,000 each year. Many of them suffer from sequelae, which interferes with their activities of daily living (ADL). About 30% of seniors in need of long-term care is said to be due to experiencing a cerebral stroke. About 20 to 30% of the patients who have hemiplegia after a cerebral stroke remain unable to walk even through rehabilitation after the cerebral stroke. Even if they can walk, the percentage of the patients who can walk outside after the stroke remains at 50% or less because of a high risk of fall due to declined walking speed and instability. In these circumstances, a device for effective gait training has been desired.
Known electrical stimulators which apply electrical stimulation to a rehabilitant in training for improvement of the walking movements of the rehabilitant include an electrical stimulator which applies low-frequency electrical stimulation to individual peripheral nerves and muscles to control a simple joint. However, advanced gait training is difficult to achieve through such control of a simple joint. Control of a simple joint can only be adopted into training for those who have mild palsy.
To address this inconvenience, techniques of generating electrical stimulation of complicated types and patterns to apply it to a rehabilitant have also been suggested (see, e.g., Patent Document 1).